


Absolute zero

by Haikane (Kanekane)



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Huddling For Warmth, Kuro is an alien, Kuroneki | Black-haired Kaneki, M/M, cliches, no ghouls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 14:03:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4749038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanekane/pseuds/Haikane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Space!AU.</p>
<p>During a patrol, Haise's ship detects a source of heat in a frozen, dead planet. As a righteous commander, he needs to check what it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolute zero

**Author's Note:**

> No one is a Ghoul, they don't exist here. This is an AU. A Space AU. ~~I really love them.~~
> 
> So, this is what happens when you like a rare pair and is fan of Sci-fi.
> 
> Not edited.
> 
> I'm sorry.

Delta-X 175 was a small, frozen planet in the middle of nothing.

Truly, when the spaceship first scanned the place it didn’t detect any kind of life, it was just on the third time that some signal of warmth appeared on the screen.

Haise looked to the panel, crossing his arms and analyzing the information they had.

It could be nothing (maybe just a random lava pit), but it also could be some kind of life form.

Being the righteous commander that he was, the two-tone-haired male decided it would be better to check.

“Don’t even look at me, yer crazy if ya think I’m gonna beam down to that piece of frozen shit.” Shirazu quickly said when he noticed Sasaki’s eyes on himself.

He really needed some kind of punishment for talking like that to his own captain. Kids these days…

“Ah… Well, then maybe Urie?” Haise tried again, this the one who answered him was Tooru.

“He is busy with the engineering sector, sir,” The boy didn’t fail to see how the two-tone-haired male’s eyebrow twitched. “But I could accompany you, if that’s the case.”

At this, Haise thought a little; Saiko was out of question, she probably was playing one of her games or sleeping.

“Right, it will be quick. We just need to check the heat source the scanner pointed out and then come back.”

Tooru nodded, looking as serious as ever, clearly treating this as some important mission, which Haise was glad for; at least one of his subordinates liked to work.

“Let’s wear the special suit. The temperature can be really low down there.”

He really hoped nothing went out of control.

* * *

Things seemed fine at first. 

The planet landscape was as dead and monotonous as they had expected; only snow and some rocks. The sky was a pale shade of grey with some menacing clouds traveling through it. 

Haise looked to Tooru, noticing that he was still a little shaky from the teleportation; really, his squad needed more training, or else they would never progress and would be forever stuck in that position: as beginners, never being trusted to do important missions, just the old and boring patrolling thing.

“The ship said we need to go to south, maybe a fifteen minutes walk and we’ll arrive at our destination,” The two-tone-haired male announced through his communicator.

“Okay, sir!” Tooru started to walk after his captain, keeping the portable scanner at hand, just in case it noticed something.

Nothing eventful happened. This until a storm started to build up. 

The wind was blowing with such a force that snow, granite and rocks where flying everywhere, hitting the humans, whom needed to fight to even stay on their feet.

Haise’s suit alerted him that the temperature was dropping in an alarming pace, which meant that they needed to hurry up if they wanted to save whatever was the heat source the ship had captured in its radar. 

“Sasaki to Shirazu. Can you please check the scanner again?” 

“Yeah--- To the sou--- It’s---” 

Haise furrowed his eyebrow, walking beside Tooru.

“Shirazu, I can’t hear, can you please repeat?” But the only thing he got through the communicator was an unpleasant sizzle.

The storm was interfering with the signal. They had lost communication with the ship. Just great.

“Let’s keep moving, soon we’ll find a place to hide,” Sasaki said while heading to where he thought was the correct direction.

They kept their long and torturous journey, the wind delaying their steps and sometimes even making Mutsuki lose his balance; Haise started to think if it was a good idea to bring him along, after all.

“Watch out!”

Suddenly, a big piece of crumpled metal went flying in their direction.

Sasaki, being faster and with more reflexes, jumped to the side the wind was blowing, escaping without any injuries, but Tooru’s scream was enough to let him know that his subordinate didn’t have the same luck.

“Mutsuki, are you okay?!”

“Yes, but, ugh, my suit-- It’s damaged… The heat system is not working anymore.” 

In a planet like that one, with temperatures low enough to kill a human in mere minutes, Haise knew he needed to send the other back as soon as possible.

They desperately needed to reestablish communication with the ship.

“Right, let’s keep going, to that mountain right there, do you see it?”

With a positive response, they headed to the mass of rock and snow, looking for some kind of hideout where they could try to fix Mutsuki’s gear. 

It took some time, but they finally found a small entrance that led to a cave, a place that was somewhat hotter than the outside.

“Stay here, I’ll go check everything,” Haise announced, letting his subordinate sit on the ground and start to check the damage on his suit.

The spaceship commander walked carefully, using his equipment to light up the path.

Everything seemed in order until he noticed a silhouette not so far away from where he was.

Was it an animal? Maybe a native? However, Sasaki remembered that the scanners only pointed one life form in the entire planet; that being probably was the source.

Slowly, he approached, ready to defend himself if necessary, but as he stepped closer, more he noticed the other was unconscious, probably due to the extreme cold.

“Hey, are you alright?” He asked while kneeling, holding the person that had the shape of a human, but could be anything, since they wore a mask that covered their whole face.

With no response, Haise didn’t hesitate to take the other in his arms, running back to where Tooru was.

“We need to go back to the ship as soon as possible.”

With two persons under the risk of death, Haise knew his only option was to put his survival skills to use.

“Stay back,” He warned before using his gun, hitting a place on the wall to make rocks fall and cover the whole exit of the cave. This way, they could create a warmer place.

“Who are they?” Tooru asked while still trying to repair his heat system, curiously looking at the person on Haise’s arms, the bluish light of his flashlight reflecting on the walls and the one who brought them to that planet, in the first place.

“I’m not sure… But they are alive,” Sasaki answered, pressing his hand on the other’s chest to check for some pulsation. 

“Their suit seems to still work…” After all, the body was warm. “What about yours?”

“Ah, I’m trying, but the damage was worse than I thought… ”

Thinking this way, the one who needed to go back to the ship was Tooru; Haise could stay with the stranger in that cave for more time than him.

“Mutsuki, I’ll keep trying to establish contact with the others, if someone answer and it’s possible, beam up to the ship. Don’t worry about me.”

Haise then put the unconscious person on the floor, near Tooru, dedicating the next minutes to try to talk to his squad.

“Shirazu? Can you hear me?”

“Yea--But the signal is shi-ty.”

Haise sighed in relieve that he could at least speak with Ginshi.

“Can you teleport Mutsuki? His heat system is damaged, he can’t stay here any longer.”

There was a pause.

“Boss, if I beam him up now, no one else will come here for a long time, yer understand? That shitty storm messed up everything…”

“Yes, I’m aware, teleport him back and keep the medical bay ready, we’ll have a patient.”

* * *

Hours had passed since Tooru’d came back to the ship. Since then, Haise couldn’t even talk to anyone, especially when the storm seemed to increase, only making the temperature drop more and more.

It was cold. 

So cold that even his gear warned him that soon it wouldn’t be able to keep him alive. So cold that he was trembling, holding at the stranger that still hadn’t showed any sign of life.

Haise coughed, feeling his entire body rigid, his hands colds and his lungs burning.

It was so, so cold. 

“I-It will be f-fine…” He whispered roughly, his voice cracking at the edges, “W-We’ll esca--pe.”

But he wasn’t that sure.

* * *

It reached a point that Sasaki shameless hugged the person against himself, trying to share the little heat they had.

He couldn’t properly breathe, his own mask starting to bother him, as if it was sucking his air away; he knew it had something to do with the pressurized oxygen, it probably was ending.

“C-Cold-- T-Too c-cold…”

His years at the academy had taught him how to survive in extreme environments like that one, that was why Haise didn’t think twice before pressing their bodies together, aligning them and being able to feel every contour of the stranger’s. 

In normal circumstances, Sasaki would be ashamed to do that kind of thing, but at that time, he knew he needed to do anything for the sake of survival.

The next thing he did was take his mask off, the cold and breathable air hitting his cheeks and making him feel more alive. Until before, it was safer to stay with it, but since he was running out of air supply, there was no reason to keep it on.

He then repeated his movements with the other, knowing the same situation was occurring with them, for the first time revealing their face.

It was a guy.

He had black hair and some delicate, intricate drawings on his skin. His ears were long, just like the elves Haise used to read about on his books. 

He was beautiful.

The two-tone-haired male pressed the other’s face on his shoulder, wrapping his arms and legs around his lean body, hoping they could soon go back to the ship.

* * *

They were freezing; Haise was positive that they would die soon.

With some effort, he once again looked to the stranger’s face, pressing their foreheads together. 

What an ungrateful way to die… In the middle of nowhere, victim of the cold.

It was even worse to the black-haired male, right? He was there for more time than Haise himself. Maybe his spaceship had fallen, maybe he was sent to that planet; Sasaki supposed he would never know, but if he was supposed to die there, he wanted to at least save that boy.

“I-I’m… --S-Sorry--Y-You-- I-I don’t want to-- L-Let you d-die he-re…”

His voice was a whisper, neither Haise himself could recognize it. 

“--Boss? Yer hearing? I can beam you up, you and the dude with ya.” Shirazu’s voice suddenly came from his communicator.

With widened eyes and a spark of hope in his heart, Sasaki tried to reach for his gear, but his fingers seemed to freeze in place: right at the stranger’s cheek.

“I’ll take this as a yes.”

And the next thing Haise felt was a warm feeling before everything went blank.

* * *

“Is everything all right?”

Tooru’s voice caught his attention, making him turn his head to the side and blink slowly.

“You’ve been sleeping for two days now, sir.”

He could feel how slow he was moving and even thinking, as if his brain hadn’t woke up completely, however, the first thing that left his mouth after he opened it was:

“How is he?”

At this, Tooru seemed to get a bit nervous.

“Ah, he is fine… He is currently resting on the bed next yours. We checked the credentials on his gear and discovered that his name is Kaneki. He is from another quadrant, his ship malfunctioned and fell on this planet.”

Haise heard it all, but took some time to process all the information.

“So this mean… He will live?”

“Yes… He will.”

That was a relief.

“I’ll let you rest more, sir. In case something happens, just press this button and I’ll come back,” Mutsuki announced before leaving, letting Sasaki alone with the black-haired male in the medical bay.

Haise sighed, moving his head to the side until he could see Kaneki, his resting and unconscious form lying on the bed.

He seemed at peace, so much that just looking at him made Sasaki relax.

The two-tone-haired male would talk to Kaneki and explain everything when he woke up, but, in that moment, Haise just wanted to close his eyes and sleep again.


End file.
